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From: davids@well.UUCP (David Schachter)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.misc
Subject: Re: Clock keeps correct time by listening to the radio (WWV/WWVH)
Message-ID: <1761@well.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Sep-86 03:55:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: well.1761
Posted: Thu Sep 11 03:55:35 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Sep-86 21:33:29 EDT
References: <1739@well.UUCP> <33@vianet.UUCP>
Reply-To: davids@well.UUCP (David Schachter)
Distribution: na
Organization: Precision Standard Time, Inc., Santa Clara CA
Lines: 25
Keywords: DST, Daylight Savings Time
Xref: mnetor net.unix-wizards:7851 net.misc:2671


Mr. Devine raises two points regarding WWV/WWVH radio clocks.  His first point
is that some states do not follow the national Daylight Savings Time guidelines
and thus the WWV/WWVH broadcast will not work correctly with Daylight Savings
Time.  He is correct.  Automatic DST correction by the clock can be defeated
with a switch or through the serial port.  Of course this reduces the useful-
ness of the clock.  Question: are there enough localities with their own DST
rules that the PSTI clock should allow some user programmability of the DST
rules, perhaps letting the user enter start and stop dates over the serial port?
Mr. Devine's second point is the low signal strength on the East Coast.  This
is not a problem, at least with the PSTI clock.  We have several units working
on the East Coast.  The signal strength on the East Coast is certainly lower
than nearer the transmitter (hey, that's not always the case with shortwave
radio!) but our receiver is very sensitive, and is designed to receive just
the five WWV/WWVH frequencies.  A specialized receiver such as this can be
more sensitive than a generalized receiver, says the RF analog design guy.  It
sounds reasonable....

[I am an employee of Precision Standard Time, Inc. and have a financial inter-
est in the firm.]

Uh, if you want to reply to this, perhaps net.unix-wizards is more appropriate
than net.misc.

                    -- David Schachter (408) 980-8001 noon-9pm Pacific Time